What will I study?

Overview

Course structure

Students who do not have a law degree from a common law jurisdiction must complete Fundamentals of the Common Law, as well as seven subjects from the prescribed list.

Students with a law degree from a common law jurisdiction must complete at least seven subjects from the prescribed list and may choose an eighth subject from those available in the Melbourne Law Masters (excluding Fundamentals of the Common Law).

Subject timing and format

The Melbourne Law Masters program has been designed around the busy schedules of working professionals. Subjects are offered from February to December each year.

Most subjects are taught intensively, giving you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the subject content. Intensive subjects are typically taught over five days, either from Monday–Friday or Wednesday–Tuesday, excluding the weekend. This intensive format enables students from interstate or overseas to fly to Melbourne to attend class. Semester-length subjects are generally taught for two hours in the evening each week during the semester.

Subjects are taught in an interactive seminar style and class sizes normally range from 20 to 30 students.

Duration

As a student, you will need to enrol in at least one subject per semester and will have a maximum of four years to complete the course, including any leave of absence.

Sample course plan

View some sample course plans to help you select subjects that will meet the requirements for this degree.

Sample course plan - 1 year full time

KEY

Compulsory

Elective

Year 1

Total

100 Points

Semester 1

12.5 Points

Compulsory

12.5 Points

Month 1

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 2

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 3

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 4

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 5

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 6

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 7

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Sample course plan - 2 years part time

KEY

Elective

Year 1

Total

50 Points

Month 1

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 2

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 3

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 4

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Year 2

Total

50 Points

Month 1

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 2

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 3

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 4

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Explore this course

Explore the subjects you could choose as part of this degree.

2019 SubjectsCredit points

Climate Change Law12.5

Climate Change Law

Climate change is a pressing environmental, economic and social problem. Global warming is predicted to have wide-ranging impacts, and it presents enormous challenges for conventional models of law and socio-economic governance due to its pervasive character, long-term effects and the need for dynamic change in many of the fundamental areas of life. This subject examines the challenges for law in driving that change, from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its associated Paris Agreement, to international trade and litigation, to federal and state legislative responses, through to local effects including on Indigenous peoples. The lecturer is active in research and advice in climate change law and governance in the international and domestic law spheres.

Principal topics include:

The scientific basis for global warming and physical impacts of climate change

The international legal framework, including the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement and associated international instruments

Social and cultural impacts and legal responses, such as human rights protection

The schemes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

The role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in climate change governance, particularly with respect to renewable energy technologies and the disciplining of fossil fuel subsidies

The interaction of climate change regimes with other international law frameworks; eg World Heritage, refugee law and security

Comparative Indigenous Rights

This highly topical subject analyses the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Topics discussed include Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery, treaties, land and resource rights, self-determination, and Indigenous families and justice. The subject will be taught from a critical perspective, comparing and assessing the treatment of Indigenous rights in the four jurisdictions. In exploring these issues, the subject will also examine aspects of legal pluralism, and assess a variety of normative and political justifications for Indigenous rights.

Principal topics include:

History of the concept of Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery

Concepts of sui generis agreement-making between Indigenous peoples and governments

Implications of distinctions between government obligations and Indigenous rights

Energy and Resources Law in China

This subject examines the legal framework governing natural resources and renewable energy in China, with particular focus on mineral deposits, living organisms, and climate resources (i.e., wind, sunlight and atmospheric moisture). The objective is to provide students with a practical understanding of this important area of economic regulation, and an appreciation of the broader normative considerations (i.e., efficiency and redistribution) that are applicable to similar issues elsewhere. This subject draws from the lecturer’s extensive academic scholarship on resources law, regulatory theory, and Chinese legal system.

Principal topics include:

The normative theoretical framework for assessing resources law, in particular the controversies and ambiguities surrounding the conceptions of economic efficiency and redistributive fairness

Energy Regulation and the Law

Adequate, reliable and sustainable supplies of energy are crucial to modern societies, and their assurance demands the close and continuous involvement of governments. This subject explains the challenges—affordability, security of supply, safety, control of monopoly, sustainability in an age of global warming—that the economic and technical characteristics of different energy sources present to governments in Australia, and analyses the regulatory tools that they have at their disposal for responding to such challenges. It shows how the law can function both as an essential vehicle for such regulation and as a constraint on its content. The lecturer is a leading international authority on oil and gas law and has published extensively in the field of regulation.

Principal topics include:

The nature of regulation, its development in Australia and its relationship with law

General explanations and justifications for regulation

The techniques of regulation

Regulatory issues posed by the supply of different types of energy:

Mineral energies: coal, petroleum and uranium

Network energies: electricity, gas

Renewable energies

The Australian federal environment for energy regulation. Two or more case studies of Australian energy regulation:

Electricity and gas: from state monopolies to regulated national markets

Energy Resources in Emerging Markets

This subject explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of energy resources in so-called ‘emerging markets’, and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Russia will be used as an example of an emerging market presenting particular characteristics and problems that provide important insights into emerging markets elsewhere in the world.

The subject coordinator has conducted research on ‘emerging markets’ over many years, and has extensive practical experience as an adviser in these matters. His work is widely published in numerous books and journal articles.

Entertainment Law

This subject examines some legal aspects of a modern entertainment industry – in particular, contractual arrangements and intellectual property rights, as well as publicity and privacy rights. Particular reference will be made to the United States, home of the largest entertainment industry in the world, and Australia, which of course has its own important entertainment industry, but other countries will also be considered. The focus will be both on the written law (with an emphasis on legal development and policy) and the law as it is practised, with the latter part of the course devoted to a contract negotiation exercise. Cases and examples will mostly come from the fields of music, book publishing, the visual and performing arts and live theatre.

Principal topics include:

The entertainment industry and measures of social value; stakeholders within and outside the industry; need for law; range of relevant laws

Contracting in the entertainment industry: licensing, joint ventures, examples of contracts in use (such as book publishing, music touring, character merchandising), and processes and strategies adopted in negotiation

Expansion of rights: technological developments, sui generis or incremental responses, United States and Anglo-Australian approaches

Privacy and related issues: implications for industry practice and entertainers

Practical exercises on negotiation and drafting book and merchandising contracts (explored in a workshop environment).

Fundamentals of the Common Law

Fundamentals of the Common Law is a foundational subject in the Melbourne Law Masters (MLM), which is compulsory for graduates in disciplines other than law and for law graduates from countries with a non-common law system. It provides students with an opportunity to acquire the foundational legal skills necessary for studying and working in a common law system, such as that in Australia.

The common law forms one of the two principal systems of Western law that, through colonisation, have spread throughout the world. Common law systems have a distinctive approach to understanding the sources of law, the role of law-making institutions, and processes for resolving disputes. These characteristics of the common law system have had a profound effect on the development not only of the societies in the countries in which it applied, but also on international law and practice.

The aim of this subject is to acquire basic foundational legal skills that will assist you with other subjects in the MLM program. The subject teaches students how to read, use and interpret reported cases and legislation. The subject explains the sources of law, what influences them, and how they influence the development of the common law. These aims are given in context of some contemporary debates on common law reasoning by assessing the role of the High Court of Australia. The subject focuses on developing skills in analysis and legal writing, the tools of the common lawyer

International Commercial Arbitration

International commercial arbitration is the most important method globally for resolving cross-border commercial disputes. The focus of this subject is on the basic principles of international commercial arbitration law and is taught from the perspective of both the practitioner advising clients and the scholar interested in advanced research. There will be a particular focus on the desirability of arbitration compared with other dispute resolution methods, the relationships between the courts and arbitrators, drafting techniques and developments in Australia and other countries.

Principal topics include:

The nature of international arbitration

Applicable law in international arbitration

The Australian procedural regime and an introduction to the UNCITRAL Model Law

International Economic Law

Newspaper headlines frequently concern global economic issues, from trade disputes between countries and investment claims by foreign investors against sovereign states, to countries facing balance-of-payments crises and seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This subject examines the law governing global economic issues. It is designed both as a comprehensive introduction in its own right to this important field, as well as a foundation for further exploration through specialist subjects in the curriculum. It begins with a historical and theoretical background to the field before turning to focus on international trade law, particularly the rules and dispute settlement procedures of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It then discusses contemporary developments in international trade law and policy, including the negotiations for regional or bilateral preferential trade agreements. The subject then considers international investment law, examining key substantive obligations relating to investor protection and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms (particularly through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)). Finally, the subject provides an introduction to the lending policies and practices of international financial institutions, particularly the IMF and the World Bank.

Principal topics include:

Nature, evolution and context of international economic law

The law of the WTO

Dispute settlement in the WTO

International investment law

Investor-state arbitration under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention

International financial institutions (particularly the IMF and the World Bank).

International Environmental Law

International environmental law is the field of public international law concerned with the protection of the natural environment, and those aspects of the built environment recognised as world cultural heritage. It is a vitally important branch of international law, seeking as it does to safeguard the environment on which humanity depends for its very existence. International environmental law seeks to integrate the activities of diverse actors—states, international organisations, businesses, communities and non-government organisations (NGOs) and uses a wide range of legal tools (including economic instruments and participatory mechanisms) to address pressing environmental concerns. This subject explores the critical governance and regulatory dimensions of international environmental law, as well as introducing you to cases and treaties that have been pivotal to the development of this area of international law. The lecturers in the subject are international environmental law experts, with both academic and practical experience in the field, which will be drawn into the delivery of a stimulating and relevant subject.

Principal topics include:

The need for international environmental law and its historical development

The principal institutions and actors involved in the creation, implementation and enforcement of international environmental law

The principal cases and treaties that have been influential in the development of international environmental law

Current issues of concern in international environmental law, including atmospheric pollution and climate change, the protection of the oceans, species protection and biodiversity, and international trade.

International Legal Internship

International Legal Internship allows students to gain credit for undertaking advanced legal research and analysis on an approved international internship of at least eight weeks of full-time work in an approved international institution or organisation. This subject is focused on providing students with an opportunity to engage with legal and policy issues in contemporary society through work experience and further develop oral and written communication skills. Students are required to secure and fund their internships personally.

Students are encouraged to discuss their internship proposals with the subject coordinators. Students who successfully enrol in International Legal Internship must arrange a meeting with at least one of the subject coordinators both prior to their internship and upon completion, to develop a better understanding of research and the role of international institutions in international law and relations.

International Mineral Law

The mining industry is international in character and many mining and exploration companies operate in multiple foreign jurisdictions. This subject examines the legal, fiscal and regulatory regimes that govern mineral exploration and production internationally, with a particular emphasis on exploration and mining in developing countries. It deals with the negotiation of mining development agreements with host governments, regulatory schemes and fiscal regimes, community agreements, principles of sustainability and international norms affecting the mining sector. The lecturer has extensive practical experience in mineral ventures in a number of different jurisdictions.

International Petroleum Transactions

This subject considers the legal issues and structure of transactions relating to the exploration, production and marketing of petroleum that, owing to its economic and strategic importance, is the most important commodity traded worldwide. This subject will give students a detailed understanding of how crude oil and gas are exploited and marketed worldwide. It will cover how countries establish sovereignty over petroleum resources and how host governments or their national (state-owned) oil companies contract with private companies to explore and develop oil and gas resources. This subject also reviews and analyses key contracts among petroleum companies, and contracts between petroleum companies and petroleum-services contractors, that facilitate exploration, development and marketing of petroleum. As petroleum is one of the most politically charged commodities, this subject will also consider extra-territorial anti-corruption law and political risk. In a broader sense, this subject will help students develop better analytical skills—especially the ability to critically evaluate contracts.

Law of the Sea

The law of the sea relates to the allocation of jurisdiction and peaceful uses of the seas and oceans, the equitable and efficient utilisation of marine resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment. Historically concerned with the ‘freedom of the seas’ for sovereign states, the law of the sea must also address contemporary and emerging challenges such as climate change, marine species preservation, pollution, overlapping territorial claims and national security. The overarching legal regime of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is supplemented by specific agreements as well as market techniques and supply chain oversight. This subject provides an overview and critique of the established and newly forming international regimes – and their interaction – and is informed by an institutional approach that acknowledges the influence of dispute settlement systems, non-state participation and transnational and administrative practices. The lecturers have published widely on fisheries law, trade law, the law of the sea and on the interaction between international legal regimes.

Principal topics include:

The Law of the Sea Convention and associated instruments governing the high seas, including the Fish Stocks Agreement

Divisions of jurisdiction within the Law of the Sea, including key notions of the territorial sea, exclusive economic zones (EEZ), areas beyond national jurisdiction (high seas) and the sea-bed area

Voluntary instruments of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, including the Compliance Agreement, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Port State Measures Agreement, as well as emerging views on the ecosystem approach and marine protected areas

Major Project Delivery: Legal Interfaces

The delivery of major energy and resources projects is an organic process which involves multifaceted interactions with the law. In this subject, students will gain insights into the way that advising on such projects involves navigating an often-challenging intersection of construction and regulatory systems, drawing on aspects of property law, environmental law, native title, finance, banking and commercial law.

Students will also engage with the need for reform in major project delivery, with the cost of project delivery in Australia already prohibitive and globally uncompetitive.

The subject will examine how major energy and resources projects are defined, designed, structured and developed, the pressure points for successful and cost-efficient project delivery in Australia, and the areas where conflicts and disputes emerge and how they are managed.

Principal topics include:

Project scoping from feasibility to design, including examination of recent studies on procurement practices and a simulated workshop on feasibility models, risk analysis and front-end engineering and design (FEED)

Overview of regulatory approval frameworks for major project delivery in the energy and resources sector, including a case study-based discussion of the interaction of such frameworks with construction document development and management

Project delivery models and frameworks in the energy and resources sector

Examination of leading causes of project stress and failure, including the need for proactive forensic planning

Current approaches to dispute management in major project delivery, including exercises examining common problems encountered in drafting dispute resolution clauses in project documentation, as well as a discussion of contemporary and innovative approaches to dispute management and avoidance in major projects.

Mineral and Petroleum Law

Mineral and petroleum resources have shaped Australia’s history, economy, society and environment for more than 150 years and continue to do so. The exploitation of these resources involves governments as proprietors and regulators, together with private enterprise as explorers and developers. The complex relationship between governments and private enterprise provides the central theme of the subject. Australia’s federal system of government adds to the complexity of that relationship. The subject begins by identifying fundamental legal issues that occur in most countries in the exploration for and production of mineral and petroleum resources. It then examines the ways in which these issues are resolved in Australia, using statutory title regimes and government agreements. The effectiveness of the Australian approach to these matters is examined in the international context of legal arrangements employed for management of mineral and petroleum resources elsewhere in the world.

Politics of Transnational Regulation

From corporate self-regulation to multi-stakeholder certification, transnational private regulation is exploding. Multinational firms and powerful governments often succeed in exploiting the resulting overlaps and intersections amongst actors and institutions to bypass unattractive forums, shift decision-making to preferred arenas, shape outcomes in their favour and impose their desired rules on others. Marginalized equity-seeking actors such as workers, indigenous peoples, subsistence producers and industry-affected communities sometimes resist these efforts successfully. Rarely, they even exploit these overlaps and intersections to advance their own interests. Using real-world examples and cutting-edge interdisciplinary theory, the subject examines how powerful actors exploit transnational governance interactions in their favour and how these interactive dynamics can instead be harnessed to improve regulatory capacities, raise standards and empower weaker actors. The teacher heads the interdisciplinary Transnational Business Governance Interactions research network and is a leading scholar and practitioner of transnational private regulation.

Principal questions and topics to be addressed will include:

What is transnational private regulation? Definition, actors, institutions, processes, history, trends, examples and relation to domestic and international law

Project Finance

Project finance is the financing of major projects. It often takes the form of a financing arrangement under which the monies raised for a project are repaid primarily from the project’s cash flow, with the project’s assets held as collateral. It enables the sponsor of a project to arrange financing with no recourse, or limited recourse, to the sponsor’s balance sheet. Project finance is complex in view of the number of parties involved, the security that is taken over the project’s cash flow and assets, the nature of the rights that are exercised by the lenders in respect of the project generally and the cross-border character of stakeholders. Project finance lawyers need to have an in-depth understanding of both the legal issues that arise as well as the commercial and operational aspects of the project.

The lecturers are leading practitioners in this area and they introduce students to the key legal, contractual and structural issues concerning major projects and project finance, and analyse these issues in the context of a number of case studies in the mineral, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Public Private Partnerships Law

Private sector involvement in the financing, delivery and operation of public infrastructure is nothing new; it is, however, constantly evolving. The public appetite for social and economic infrastructure is insatiable, yet must constantly be tempered by economic constraints. Alongside the increasingly sophisticated and internationalised market for funding and technical capacity, there has been in recent years a renewed focus upon the policy bases for public private partnerships (PPPs) by governments and the broader community. Navigating all this in its legal context is one of the great ongoing challenges faced by the construction industry and its legal advisers. This subject, taught by two leaders in the field who bring a wealth of experience to the classroom, is designed to equip students to respond to this challenge.

Principal topics include:

Historical perspectives on private involvement in the delivery of public infrastructure, how it has changed over time and lessons learnt

Approaches to the categorising of PPP projects, including the broad distinction between ‘economic’ and ‘social’ infrastructure

The dynamics of financing versus the fiscal responsibility of repayments and funding

Features specific to the structuring and procurement of projects within each of these categories, including fundamental aspects such as the need to secure an income stream in relation to economic infrastructure and the relevance of the distinction, in relation to social infrastructure, between delivery of physical infrastructure and delivery of services

Features specific to particular sectors within each of these categories (eg toll roads, power stations, water, health care, education and corrections)

The various policy frameworks in place in Australia (and leading international agencies) for evaluation and engagement of private sector involvement in public infrastructure delivery

Drivers that underpin the structuring, negotiation and delivery of PPP projects, including financing, probity and value for money (including public sector comparator mechanisms), competition, tax (including issues derived from Australia‘s federal structure as opposed to unitary systems in other countries) and construction risk.

Resources Joint Ventures

The exploitation of mineral and petroleum resources involves substantial risk. The resources joint venture provides a commercial opportunity to manage this risk. It is a particular legal relationship: an association of persons (natural or corporate) to engage in a common undertaking to generate a product to be shared among the participants. Management of the undertaking is divided: the participants determine some matters by agreement at the outset of the relationship; the power to determine other matters is vested in a committee on which the participants are represented and entitled to vote; a manager (or operator) is appointed by the participants to conduct agreed activities, on their behalf, within the scope of the common undertaking (exploration, development production). This subject examines the legal issues involved in this complex relationship, together with ancillary transactions (such as farmouts). In doing so, it considers the capacity of the common law to respond to commercial imperatives. It also evaluates the effectiveness of legal documentation employed in establishing the joint venture relationship.

The lecturer, a former Dean of Melbourne Law School, has published extensively in the fields of energy and resources law and served as President of the Australian Mineral and Petroleum Law Association.

Water Law & Natural Resources Management

Water law and natural resources management are fundamental to human society, environmental protection and many aspects of economic productivity. Legal rules around water co-evolved with the development of many societies. Water is both necessary for life but also a source of conflict. This subject considers the international laws governing water, including principles addressing trans-jurisdictional water governance for major river systems. It canvasses emerging questions, such as whether there is a human right to water, and climate change impacts on water availability. It examines the development of common law rules around water allocation and water quality that retain an important role in water management. There is a major focus on indigenous water rights.

The general development of statutory-based water law, concentrating on the Australian federal and Victorian situation, provides the main case study of water law and governance. The subject examines the water law reforms leading to adoption of the national Water Act 2007, and covers the federal legislation, such as the development of environmental water regulation and water trading. It provides an examination of the Victorian water legislation, which explores catchment and natural resources management issues. The subject has a focus on groundwater and looks at impacts on groundwater due to mining and fracking. This subject covers urban water laws, with a focus on novel uses, such as water recycling and storm water capture.

Principal topics include:

International law and policy governing water, including examination of relevant treaties and conventions

Water rights: including human rights and cultural rights – especially those of Indigenous peoples

An overview of the current system of Australian statutory regimes for surface water and groundwater allocation and use

Australian national water and resource management reforms, including the National Water Initiative

The Water Act 2007 (Cth), including water trading and water planning

Environmental water regulation

Victorian water laws, including water authorities and governance models